Denmark: Solidarity with the Venezuelan Revolution

On Thursday the 4th of October, Hands Off Venezuela Denmark arranged a number of solidarity events with the Venezuelan revolution. In Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, a small group of leftwing activists assembled in front of the Venezuelan embassy to show their support for the Venezuelan revolution and for the socialist president Hugo Chávez in the presidential election on Sunday, October 7^th.

The demonstration was organised by the Danish section of the international campaign of Hands Off Venezuela (HOV). The solidarity picket also wanted to send a message to the Venezuelans: If the opposition should stage a coup or try to create a situation to justify foreign invasion, this will be meet with protests also in Denmark. Organizations in Denmark are following the events closely and are ready to call for large protests against any undemocratic maneuver from the rightwing. In addition, those assembled expressed their hope that the revolution would be carried to its conclusion: Socialism. Although the demonstration was small, it got some decent publicity with an article in the Daily Worker.

After the demonstration a meeting was held in the Copenhagen Studenthouse (a house belonging to the Copenhagen student movement).  Here Andreas Bülow, author of the first and only book in Danish about the Venezuelan revolution and former journalist for the Venezuelan Marxist paper “Lucha de Clases” (Class Struggle), described the revolutionary situation in Venezuela and the perspective for the election. The meeting had a high attendance of 17, a large number for any organization in Denmark, and was cosponsored by Hands Off Venezuela and Marxistiske Studerende (Marxist Students).

In his speech, Andreas Bülow stressed the democratic nature of Venezuela under President Chávez, the massive increase in living standards and the sabotage and undemocratic nature of the opposition. At the same time he criticized the bureaucracy in the revolutionary movement and spoke in favour of a complete socialist and democratic transformation of society. Afterwards, there was an intense discussion with many contributions and questions. All in all it was a good day for Venezuelan solidarity and proves once again, that even in the far north, many people follow the events in Venezuela with hope and inspiration.